Hi all, I was asked today "what's your favourite wood?"
Not an easy question to answer when you think about it....
I like Yew for it's colours and easy nature to turn...but then Mauser Birch with its little pips...
I love Huon pine for its fantastic smell...or maybe Oak from whisky staves?....
Do we choose grain over colour, or smells / feelings, ease of turning....so far I think I'm down to 3!
If you had to choose what would be your go to timber??
Great answer! :) Its kind of the same thing with color for me. People ask what my favorite color is, and I simply cannot give an answer. Its all about the combinations, primary, accent, tertiary...are they complimentary or not, etc. Yellow and Cyan, Orange and Blue, great together. Black, gold and red, awesome! Gray with orange accents. I can never pick just one color! Its always about how they go together. In general, I'm a real fan of black and gold, in various combinations and often with a tertiary (usually some kind of reddish color...but not always, blue works, green can work. Purple can be excellent done right!)
Its largely the same with woods for me. I don't have just one favorite wood. I like wood in combinations. Segmented turning was what got me into wood turning in the first place (not just pens, but all turning), because of how you can combine different kinds of woods to get these amazing combinations.
A lot of what I like about a wood isn't necessarily its color or grain characteristic per-se... For me, another factor is how easy it is to turn, sand, and finish. Some woods are just an amazing pleasure to work with...others are a hateful PITA! That drives what woods I use often enough. I really love figured and burl woods, but a simple strait grain works at times as well. Again, its hard for me to think of just one wood, its all about the combinations!
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